The number of people working as appraisers has dropped 15 percent since 2007 and could decrease another 25 to 35 percent during the next 10 years due to retirements and fewer new entrants into the profession, according to an analysis released today by the Appraisal Institute.

At the same time, the share of appraisers with a state certification, which requires more education than a license, is at a record high, indicating that the appraiser population is more qualified overall, the Appraisal Institute said. At the end of 2012, 87 percent of appraisers were certified, up from 72 percent at the end of 2006.

The Appraisal Institute analyzed data from the national registry of the Appraisal Subcommittee (ASC), which the U.S. Congress created in 1989 to oversee the real estate appraisal process in federally-related transactions, from 2006 through 2012.

During that time period, the number of appraisers decreased about 3 percent per year, to 83,400, driven largely by a decline of nearly 16,000 licensed appraisers, the Institute said. Meanwhile, the number of certified general and residential appraisers rose by nearly 6,000.

About a third of the decline in licensed appraisers was due to appraisers achieving certification. The vast majority of appraisers who left the profession during that time were appraisers who had only achieved licensed status and were either relatively new to the profession or did not get certified, the Appraisal Institute said.

The Appraisal Institute — an association of nearly 23,000 real estate appraisers in close to 60 countries — anticipates attrition due to age and a “sharp and long-term decline” in new entrants to the field may result in a 25 to 35 percent decrease in the total number of appraisers in the next decade.

Michael Saad, 49, an Iowa resident, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, followed by six months’ home confinement, for willfully overvaluing property for the purpose of influencing a federally insured credit union.

Saad was sentenced on On April 1, 2013. United States District Judge Stephanie M. Rose also sentenced Saad to two years’ supervised release and ordered him to pay $131,575.06 in restitution to Deere Harvester Credit Union.

Beginning in April 2007 and continuing until December 2007, Saad knowingly inflated the values of properties that he appraised in an effort to justify higher mortgage loans for borrowers. Saad misrepresented the square footage, age, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, and other information associated with the subject properties and the comparable properties listed in his appraisals.

United States Attorney Nicholas A. Klinefeldt announced the sentence.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

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